Windows 7: Last Chance Before Alpha

Feb 13, 2008
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Windows 7: Last Chance Before Alpha


After all the FUD [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt] surrounding Windows Vista, can 7's last release before retail make people trust Microsoft again?

Four months after the beta release, the final version of 7 is as near as we can get to the retail version, barring any last minute bug fixes.

We'll already assume that the Linux Penguins won't be touching it, but can it convince those people hanging onto their copies of XP that Vista wasn't the taste of things to come?

One of the main criticisms was that Vista made powerful machines into stumbling behemoths, but 7 seems to have understood that response time, even when starting up, is paramount to user goodwill. There's nothing more annoying than having your computer stutter for no reason, especially when posting.

What's new since the last release? Well, there's the new Aero Peek, which previews a program running on Alt-Tab, and Jump Lists, which adds more functionality to right click menus.

There's also some Remote Media Streaming, but at the moment this seems like Windows Media Player. There's better ways to do it with free programs.

As for losses: The drag and drop for libraries has been removed, due to there being an easy confusion on copies and shortcuts. This also means that external drives need their own library or it panics.

Autorun is disabled on non-optical drives as well, probably due to the Conficker spread, which also is why User Access Controls (UAC) has been put to a high priority, so the viruses can't lower your security on their own. There's also full support for Touch screens, but I doubt that will be a major selling point.

One thing that may get people excited is the news of an XP mode, which, hopefully, is the backwards compatibility that most Windows users scream for. The only problem is that it may not run accelerated graphics in XP, but as long as 7 is supported by the big games manufacturers, this shouldn't really be a big problem.

This alone could make people actually want to splash the cash for the upgrade, and rather than "The wow is now" approach of the calamitous Vista, this may yet be Microsoft getting back in touch with their user base.

Source: The Register [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/30/windows_7_rc1_review/]


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Feb 13, 2008
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oliveira8 said:
Maybe....it can actually be good.

When exactly is this going to be released?
No-one's sure, 2010 is the alleged date, but there have been hints that it might even be as early as Fall 2009.
 

oliveira8

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Feb 2, 2009
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The_root_of_all_evil said:
oliveira8 said:
Maybe....it can actually be good.

When exactly is this going to be released?
No-one's sure, 2010 is the alleged date, but there have been hints that it might even be as early as Fall 2009.
Meh...still to far, and I'm gonna buy a new computer in the summer...Dual boot XP/Vista will have to do I guess.
 

scotth266

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Jan 10, 2009
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It seems to me that 7 might be *gasp* good? I'll give it a swing when the release bugs are hammered out. Until then, Vista will suffice.
 

Cpt_Oblivious

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Jan 7, 2009
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scotth266 said:
It seems to me that 7 might be *gasp* good? I'll give it a swing when the release bugs are hammered out. Until then, Vista will suffice.
Shouldn't be too many, I'm running the beta build 7000 and haven't encoutnered any.

CoziestPigeon said:
I've got a beta copy running and it really is actually good. Like, REALLY good.
Oui.
 

scotth266

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Cpt_Oblivious said:
scotth266 said:
It seems to me that 7 might be *gasp* good? I'll give it a swing when the release bugs are hammered out. Until then, Vista will suffice.
Shouldn't be too many, I'm running the beta build 7000 and haven't encoutnered any.
Really? Jeez. Mebbe I will be able to pick this up earlier than usual. It helps that our college gives us free upgrades. And also will be upgrading our laptops to touch-screen laptops for cheap :D
 

uppitycracker

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I've heard nothing but amazing things about windows 7 so far. i have the beta, just haven'pt gotten around to installing it, mainly due to hard drive space. but yeah, based on what everyone has told me, i'm really, really looking forward to the release.
 

Anton P. Nym

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I'll probably buy a new desktop when Windows 7 ships. This one is positively ancient, even though it does everything I want except play current-gen games, but after six or seven years I think it may be time for a change.

I'm also sorely tempted to try out the Windows 7 RC (or the latest beta) on my ultramobile PC, as the improved touchscreen recognition might work handily there, but with my UMPC's decidedly underpowered hardware I'm not certain it'd be a good idea.

-- Steve
 

Virgil

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I'm downloading the Windows 7 RC from TechNet, I may put it on my home PC this weekend. The earlier beta looked very solid, but it had some networking problems with my PC hardware that made it impossible to actually use.
 

ReverseEngineered

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Apr 30, 2008
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We'll already assume that the Linux Penguins won't be touching it, but can it convince those people hanging onto their copies of XP that Vista wasn't the taste of things to come?
Don't be so quick to judge. Sure, there may be those who have sworn off Microsoft (for good reason) and now swear by Linux, but there are many of us who just wish they would do something right for a change.

Whether it's Gates or Linus, I don't care who makes the software, just as long as it works. As somebody who uses both Windows and Linux regularly, XP was and still is tolerable, whereas Vista was a steaming pile of broken promises. That said, I have great hope for Windows 7 -- it's a definite improvement over XP and does everything they said Vista was going to do. They still have a chance to screw it up before release, but Microsoft may just have done something right here, in which case I'd be happy to use it.
 

DaMunky89

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Yeah, don't get too excited guys, I have a friend who runs the final beta of Vista and it's immaculate. Apparently making the jump from that to retail was when everything got messed up.

On the other hand, I really don't see why everybody whines about Vista. I get an unexplained program crash like, once a week, and other than that it's never bothered me. I mean, I suppose some of it is just I'm handy with computers, and within two days of getting this laptop had every Vista feature that annoyed me customized away.. but eh. *shrug*
 

Geoffrey42

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sirdanrhodes said:
CoziestPigeon said:
I've got a beta copy running and it really is actually good. Like, REALLY good.
Ditto.
Built a new computer last week, and have been using the beta version 7000 exclusively (no dual-boot). No issues yet, actually kind of enjoying it. Aside from having used Vista on a relative's laptop, if they release a version of Windows 7 for me to buy before the beta expires (or they release the RC beyond TechNet subscribers), then I'll be able to skip Vista altogether.
 

Anachronism

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I'm still definitely going to wait a little while before ditching XP for Windows 7, just so I can get an idea of what it's like from other people, but this is sounding pretty good. I need to upgrade my computer before university anyway, so if this is as good as it seems, I'll almost certainly get it. Especially this:
The_root_of_all_evil said:
One thing that may get people excited is the news of an XP mode, which, hopefully, is the backwards compatibility that most Windows users scream for. The only problem is that it may not run accelerated graphics in XP, but as long as 7 is supported by the big games manufacturers, this shouldn't really be a big problem.
Even after I upgrade, I'll be able to play my XP games! This is fantastic news; one of the big reasons I didn't upgrade to Vista apart from, you know, the bugs, was the fact that I'd heard it was very unfriendly to games. This is great.

Although, if I know Microsoft, there's no way it'll be out in 2009.

Or 2010, for that matter.
 

L33tsauce_Marty

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I read an interview on Engadget that said the only reason that Windows 7 had the "XP-Mode" was for business and others. Considering it will only be offered on the Pro and Ultimate edition.
 

Trivun

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Dec 13, 2008
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I have to say that I actually like Vista. All these so called 'problems' that people have with it, like a slow response time, aren't affecting me one bit. I use Vista on my PC and it is much better than XP, which my family still use on their own computer. In fact, for them, XP is much slower and much more laggy and glitchy than Vista! Why all the Vista hate, people, since I personally have never had any sort of problem with it to date?
 

RetiarySword

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I love that people are saying that vista is crap and this is a way better improvement, when in fact alot of the vista achcitecture was used for it. I get a great feeling pointing that out to people.